Client wishing to change date but not paying

jcarver007

Looking for some advice - I have a client who has ordered something bespoke and which is perishable unless carefully temperature stored. They have now asked to change the delivery date to next year. I have said that the order was for the item and delivery on a set date - to change the date we would need the full balance paid off by the original delivery date in order to store it - at a cost to us in doing so.
Client is saying he wont pay until middle of next year which I feel is wrong as he would have been paying for the item anyway if the original date was going ahead.
As the item ordered is bespoke its not subject to usual distance selling regulations in that if cancelled payment has to be made in full. However its not being cancelled - only date changed.
Just wondered if anyone has come across similar or if there are websites out there with additional info.

Mistral001

You do not give many details to go on, but it would appear that the customer has paid a certain amount up front as a deposit.  As far as I can see, you can cancel the order and give the client their money back.  You can only make a case for keeping the deposit if you have incurred costs say on materials that cannot be used on other projects or had to visit the customer to take measurements etc. A deposit cannot be arbitrary.  It cannot be more than the actual costs you have incurred as a result of order being cancelled. 

If you decide to fulfil the order at the later date, I very much doubt if you could insist on the full amount on the original date and I doubt if they the customer would agree to it.  That seems an unreasonable request  unless you had almost completed the item or could not physically delay its production.  

Slinky

Ice sculpture?

bris

Mistral001 said:

You do not give many details to go on, but it would appear that the customer has paid a certain amount up front as a deposit.  As far as I can see, you can cancel the order and give the client their money back.  You can only make a case for keeping the deposit if you have incurred costs say on materials that cannot be used on other projects or had to visit the customer to take measurements etc. A deposit cannot be arbitrary.  It cannot be more than the actual costs you have incurred as a result of order being cancelled. 

If you decide to fulfil the order at the later date, I very much doubt if you could insist on the full amount on the original date and I doubt if they the customer would agree to it.  That seems an unreasonable request  unless you had almost completed the item or could not physically delay its production.  

The OP has a contract for a perishable item so they hold all the aces. Contracts are enforceable so  not sure why you think the OP has to capitulate and give deposits back etc.

Op can insist on original terms if they so wish, it takes all parties to agree to alter a contract. Op can sue for losses if the original contract is not fulfilled, the losses are what the op would have made if the contract was fulfilled, thats loss of profit. Losses have to be mitigated etc but in the end they are still entitled to the profit they should have made.

Mistral001

bris said:

Mistral001 said:

You do not give many details to go on, but it would appear that the customer has paid a certain amount up front as a deposit.  As far as I can see, you can cancel the order and give the client their money back.  You can only make a case for keeping the deposit if you have incurred costs say on materials that cannot be used on other projects or had to visit the customer to take measurements etc. A deposit cannot be arbitrary.  It cannot be more than the actual costs you have incurred as a result of order being cancelled. 

If you decide to fulfil the order at the later date, I very much doubt if you could insist on the full amount on the original date and I doubt if they the customer would agree to it.  That seems an unreasonable request  unless you had almost completed the item or could not physically delay its production.  

The OP has a contract for a perishable item so they hold all the aces. Contracts are enforceable so  not sure why you think the OP has to capitulate and give deposits back etc.

.

I did not say that they necessarily HAVE to give the deposit back.  It is just an option, if the OP has not been out of expense up to date.  In fact if the OP has not been out of expense they, under contract law, they cannot keep the deposit despite what it says in the contract.  A deposit is considered as damages for losses and a supplier cannot claim for more damages than they have actually incurred.  In reality most customers just cough up the deposit because they think everything they sign up to in a contract is valid under contract law.  But if the deposit does not represent the actual costs that the supplier has incurred, it is considered a pure penalty and hence not valid under contract law.